St Mirren

Has Danny Lennon outstayed St Mirren welcome?

Written by Brian Corry.

WHEN I sat down to write this, my aim was clear; to produce a balanced article based on fact along with my own opinion on how our manager Danny Lennon is performing in his role as manager at St. Mirren Park. I freely admit finding balance was more difficult than I imagined.

For those who are not of a Saints persuasion, it may seem absurd that only three league games into our season and Danny Lennon is under considerable pressure from what seems a significant section of the support regarding his suitability for the job.

After all, it is only five months since he led the side to the League Cup, but the concerns of our form in the league matches throughout last season, added to what has happened this pre-season, and further fuelled by an abysmal start to this campaign, has led to questions from a fair chunk of the Saints support surrounding the ability of Lennon to continue.

And this was before the timid but ultimately predictable surrender of the League Cup to a Championship side on Tuesday night, which has really piled pressure on the manager as most Saints fans considered a stout defence of this trophy an absolute necessity this season.

Football fans of course are often accused of being fickle, but the current disharmony from the support is not a knee jerk reaction and has been built over a long period of time. However, is it justified?

I do not claim for one minute to speak on behalf of all Saints fans, but to attempt to look at it objectionably, you need to concentrate on what is making this section of the fans so unhappy, and that seems to be results and decisions taken by the manager, particularly recently.

Successful season, but St Mirren need to build to avoid relegation next term

Written by Brian Corry.

WITH an admitted slight sense of relief, finally on Sunday St. Mirren were confirmed as members of the SPL for an eighth successive season following Dundee’s failure to defeat a ten man Aberdeen side at Dens Park.

How the relegation issue got this far in the first place is a puzzle to most Saints fans, and this subject should be of much discussion in the dressing room presently, but despite the success of the season as a whole, it is obvious to me that an enforced overhaul of players is imminent during the summer in Paisley, more of which later.

However, before I get to this, firstly I must look at the so called ‘relegation fight’ and the role of both Dundee and my own club in this.

It would be churlish of me not to recognise the tremendous effort and turnaround in form of the Dens Park club under John Brown. Their supporters must be wondering what would have happened had the former Clyde boss been appointed only a few weeks earlier, such has his impact been on the surface.

In nine league games, he has won four and drawn four, losing only to Motherwell in that period. If that had been replicated throughout the season, they would have sixty four points currently after thirty six matches, enough to put them second!

St Mirren once more struggling to end relegation threat

AFTER a turbulent week in Scottish football, where St.Mirren played a key role, it was good to get back to playing football at the weekend against Dundee, even if we transpired to lose the match!

This season is our seventh consecutive in the SPL, a record for a club which was not a founder member of the current set up, and our continual inability to end the threat of relegation throughout that period has been a really frustrating trend, as has our deplorable record against the bottom club each season.

In the first season of this run of seven, we witnessed Dunfermline under Stephen Kenny claw back a twelve point lead in the second half of the season, with the two clubs meeting with four games to go in the 2006/07 season at Love Street and the gap at five points.

That evening Saints could have effectively finished the season and achieved a fairly comfortable survival in the first campaign back up, but the Pars triumphed 1-0 thanks to a Tam McManus strike in a match which seen the largest crowd at Love Street in the SPL era.

St Mirren right to block 12-12-18

Written by Brian Corry.

RECONSTRUCTION is a problematic issue in Scottish football. It has been pointed out on many occasions that it would be impossible to have plans which wholly suit 42 clubs, therefore finding total satisfaction will prove impossible. However if the proposals are sensible enough then the majority will see it through via the democratic mechanism of the voting structures.

In the SPL, the ridiculous pro old firm 11-1 vote for such matters remains in place despite the liquidation of Rangers nearly a year ago. No-one is really sure why this is, apparently Aberdeen for some reason wanted to retain it the last time it was on the SPL board agenda, but whatever the explanation it remains.

For several years, this voting structure which was effectively set up to allow the old firm to reject the plans of the ten other clubs, has been solely the most unpopular SPL rule by a considerable distance, which is quite an achievement.

How it was accepted back in 1998 is a mystery to most of us also, but it would not be disingenuous to suggest that the vast majority of fans outside Celtic in the SPL think it is a rule which must be changed. I even know Celtic fans who think it is dictatorial and not fit for purpose, and most journalists also believe it is unfair and should have been removed by now.

Yet it remains in place today and within the restructure proposal, but with a twist where the whole proposal including the voting structure can’t be changed for 36 months if accepted.

St Mirren ready for another crack at Celtic

II is back to the grind of SPL football this weekend after the depressing international matches, as Saints face Celtic for a third time in around eight weeks in the third different competition.

One thing is certain, Saints should not be suffering from lack of confidence or an inferiority complex when facing the champions on Sunday, having lifted a trophy in our last match and defeating the Parkhead along the way to victory in late January.

Our recent record against Celtic has been well highlighted, and the sorry statistic of played eight, won zero, scored zero, lost eight, conceded twenty two is still valid in SPL matches, as the last two meetings where we have scored and won a match have of course been cup ties.

This can hopefully change on Sunday, and I see no reason why it can not. At the very least I will be hoping we find the net, but in a season where we have ended many so called “hoodoos”, our poor record against Celtic should be next, and I’m sure Danny Lennon and the players know this.

On the park, Saints have had many plus points in the last few months, particularly in the wide areas.

St Mirren: Paisley's greatest every party

Written by Brian Corry.

AROUND 20 years ago in my first ever job, I was given some advice from a colleague about who would be a suitable hero for a seventeen year old. Various inspirational figures including poets, musicians, politicians, scientists and authors were rhymed off as this older figure patronised my love of football.

I politely nodded and smiled as any young man would, seemingly thankful for the advice, but thought to myself “That’s all very well, but can Gandhi score the winner against Dumbarton?”, and continued to choose Barry Lavety and Norrie McWhirter over all the fantastic people mentioned that lunchtime.

That’s just the way it is. Football, and in particular St. Mirren for me, is where the magic happens. It always has since a spring afternoon in 1984 when my Dad took me and my younger brother to a Scottish Cup quarter final match at Love Street between Saints and Morton, where the Buddies triumphed 4-3 in a thrilling match.

Fast forward a few years to 1987, and the three of us stood with other family members on the steep slopes of Hampden Park to witness Saints capture the Scottish Cup against an exceptional Dundee United side. I was just about to turn eleven years old, and the memories from that day remain fresh, but seem to be from a completely different world to the football I watch in 2013.

That Ian Ferguson goal was to be the last goal scored by a St. Mirren player at Hampden Park for over twenty five years. On January 27th 2013 a man making his debut for Saints called Esmael Goncalves netted on eight minutes against Celtic in the semi-final of the competition Saints have just won for the first time, to break about five hoodoos including the Hampden Park one, and we should probably have known then that something special was about to happen.

St Mirren: Hearts stand in the way of glory

Written by Brian Corry.

1987 was a long time ago for St. Mirren football club. Countless players, a couple of flirtations with extinction, thirteen seasons in Division One, nine managers, several chairmen, and even one place we called home have passed into history since Saints last won a major cup competition. It has been a struggle at times.

We dug in though, and we survived, and in the last decade or so have sown the seeds for a full recovery, which will be complete on Sunday if we can lift the League Cup for the first time in our history.

The fifteen year battle Saints faced off the park just to balance the books was finally won last decade, and since then the focus has been solely to restore the club back to the top flight, which we have now achieved, and amongst other things such as qualify for Europe again, is to get some much needed silverware at the new stadium in Greenhill Road.

We are now within touching distance of achieving another of our goals.

However, this is not the first cup final Saints have played in since 1987 of course, and in 2010 we also had the same opportunity which presents itself currently.

That year Saints made the final of this same competition, and although optimism wasn’t as high as now, it was still a fine achievement by the side.

What happened that day though will always remain one of the most painful episodes from the clubs entire history, and even three years on, it still seems like a bad dream. A combination of bad luck in the first half, and utter incompetence in the second half by Saints conspired to send us to the most devastating of defeats, and in a Cup Final as well.

The SFL have failed St Mirren

Written by Brian Corry.

ONLY in the murky world of Scottish Football would allocating tickets for a show piece cup final become so unnecessarily controversial.

It should be a straightforward issue. It’s a cup final, therefore you would expect the authorities, in this case the SFL, to split the tickets 50/50 unless agreed otherwise between the clubs beforehand.

In the case of the forthcoming League Cup final, it was agreed by all parties that the split would be approximately 17,500 for St. Mirren and 25,000 for Hearts, with the rest going to sponsors etc as is the norm in the modern era.

St. Mirren further agreed, in a move which has come back to haunt them, that they would accept tickets in separate blocks in the event they were unable to sell their allocation. The instalments appear to be 11,500 initially, with a further two additions of 2500 and 3500 if the demand was sufficient.

The response from Saints fans was excellent, and the first batch quickly sold out. The second batch of 2500 was also snapped up sharpish, meaning that by lunchtime yesterday there remained less than 100 tickets of the 14,000 given to Saints with nine days to spare, and the club shifting around 500 tickets per day after the initial rush.

The split and instalments agreement were both well highlighted by the club, and they encouraged fans to buy early to ensure the remaining 3500 tickets were allocated to the Saints fans. It was important to all of us as these tickets are effectively in the ‘Saints end’ of the ground, and quite rightly we would want this to ourselves.

So by yesterday afternoon with Saints having sold 99% of every ticket available to them, the fans and club expected delivery of our next batch of tickets as agreed, and would have nine days to sell 3500 tickets to a public where interest was high. It was simple, and everyone was looking forward to the final.

What we know in this country however, is that football authorities don’t particularly like to see happy fans, or indeed can they be trusted, and the SFL took the ludicrous decision to give this batch of 3500 tickets located in the Saints end to Hearts who haven’t yet sold their own allocation. This was done in typical cloak and dagger style, with no communications or dialogue with St. Mirren football club.

Saints chairman Stewart Gilmour must have turned on his phone yesterday evening and been shocked to see hundreds of tweets in his direction asking what was going on, one from me included, and he advised that this development was news to him and he was trying to find out more.